Connecting scholars, activists, and archives across Canada and the U.S. to produce a collaborative, digital history hub for gay, lesbian, queer, and trans* oral histories.

Oral History Interviews: SRS de/relisting in Ontario

If you’ve been following our social media posts, you may have noticed that interviewing is now well underway for our oral history project focusing on the 1998 delisting and 2008 re-listing of sex reassignment surgeries in Ontario (as medical procedures funded by the province). So far our team has conducted three interviews, two with Susan Gapka and one with Dr. Greta Bauer. Both have shared rich reflections about their involvement, their work, and their engagement with community as well as with policy-makers, politicians, and government officials. Both spoke passionately about the need to push strategically to fight for trans people’s access to quality health care and spoke hopefully about recent changes. We’ve been thrilled to learn more about how and why Ontario’s delisting and relisting has been such a significant component of Canadian trans history and how it galvanized and provided impetus for many of the major positive changes that have occurred since the 1998 delisting and 2008 relisting. The interviews are also providing really interesting reflections on the combination of trans and lgbtq/queer politics, on formal political processes and contexts, and on trans community relationships and issues. We look forward to sharing more details and the interviews themselves soon and greatly appreciate the generosity, expertise and wisdom of our impressive and inspiring interviewees- thank you Susan Gapka and Dr. Greta Bauer!

Do you have a connection to this material or a story to share? If so, please get in touch by emailing Nicholas Matte, who is conducting the interviews (nicholas.matte@utoronto.ca) with the assistance of Al Stanton-Hagan and Oli Bedard. We’d love to hear from you! As we continue to interview people who have been involved in various aspects of the delisting and relisting, we’re also working with our video footage to pull out key segments we can make accessible and share more broadly. Once interviewing is complete, we plan to create an online exhibit that brings together the voices , memories and experiences of people who were either effected by the policy changes, or who worked to fight for access to quality health care and equality for trans people in Ontario and beyond.

In other news, stay tuned for updates on the Foolscap project later this week!